Record-breaking Heat
by Taisi
Summary: Losing power overnight may also mean losing your pet cat, if she's made of ice cream. (2k12, drabble.)


A/N: I'm pretty sure this can't actually happen, but I needed to write it anyway. (And I wasn't sure if it was okay to tag Klunk in the character filters, since there wasn't an option for Ick, so I left it alone. :\\)

* * *

"No no no no no."

Leo frowned as he pushed past the curtains into the kitchen to find his youngest brother digging through the cabinets; knocking his precious bundt pan and wooden peel haphazardly to the floor, and stepping over them to grab for one of the doors under the sink.

"Mikey?"

Mikey didn't give any immediate sign he'd heard, tripping over a rolling pin as he lurched upright again. Leo almost repeated his name, when Mikey answered belatedly with

"The power went out last night."

Leonardo felt the beginnings of alarm settle in his chest when he realized how pale and stricken Mikey's face was under the kitchen lights. He could hear their brothers come in behind him, but Mikey was still searching wildly and didn't even look up.

"It's been so _hot_ lately, and the power went out, and I came in to check the food, and- and I can't find the stupid _cooler!"_

He punctuated the last word with a sharp kick that put a hole in one of the cabinet doors, and Raph's green eyes were wide as he raised his hands. "Jeez, Mikey, violent temper is my thing. Just calm- "

"She's melting and I can't find the cooler," Mikey said over him, voice climbing into a shout. "She's melting, Raph, _I need the cooler_."

It took a second for the words to filter through Leo's brain, because he was sort of stuck on the sight of his baby brother standing in the middle of their demolished kitchen with tears beginning to brighten his eyes;

and then he _understood,_ and whirled around, and Donny was already ripping open the freezer door, and-

"Oh, no," Don said quietly, and little more than a wobbly puddle of neopolitan ice cream with one distinctive ear and half a tail mewed weakly back.

"Keep it shut!" Mikey shot around the table like a bullet, slamming the door and almost taking Donny's hand off with it. "Keep all the cold in!" Wide, wet blue flicked up to meet Leo's and if he wasn't hysterical yet, he would be soon. "Leo, I need the cooler."

Experience at leading on the front lines had Leo moving fearlessly now: "Donny, you have a cooler in your lab," he said. "I don't know what's in it, but clear it out and get it here now."

Displaced air was his only answer as the taller turtle vanished, and Leo was left to watch Raph move over and put a strong arm around Mikey's shoulders, face gone hurting and soft.

"She was melting all night long," Mikey whispered, and Raph- who knew _exactly_ how it felt to lose a pet- wrapped Mikey a little closer and darted a swift look at Leo that said clearly _we have to make this okay._

"Here," Donny said suddenly from Leo's left shoulder, and passed over a box cooler that Raph grabbed before Mikey could reach.

"You get the cat," he said, pulling the lid off and tucking it under one arm. Mikey spun away without missing a beat, opening the freezer door and leaning in past his shoulders to scoop his melting pet into his arms.

"Hey, kitty," he cooed. "I'm gonna fix you up, okay? Make you feel better." The mutagen was probably what gave her the gelatinous consistency that kept her from dripping out of Mikey's hands into a mess on the floor. Instead she remained puddled, and when Mikey set her carefully in the bottom of the box cooler, she licked his fingers. Mikey's blue eyes were tender and scared as he drew his hands away, making him look years older than he had any right to. "That's my girl."

He looked about to start running when he hauled the cooler off the floor, and Donnie took a preemptive step forward, hands fanning out to stop him.

"Mikey, you can't go topside," he said, sounding pained. "It's light out, it's not safe."

"I'm going to April's," came the distracted reply as Mikey moved around him, ducked under the curtains hanging in the kitchen doorway, and headed for the turnstiles. "I can get most of the way there underground. I'll be careful."

 _"Mikey-_ "

He jumped off the platform, Raph only a second or so behind him, and Donnie cut himself off with a sigh that did nothing to disguise how worried he looked. In unison, or just about, he and Leo followed their brothers into the tunnels.

"It'll be okay," Raph said after about a mile. Mikey's grip on the cooler tightened, and no one said anything else after that.


End file.
